My Domestic Goddess Project:
Light Eats and the Rainy Season

We had a short break from the non-stop rain of the season yesterday. It was breezy and sunny. Shadows of laundry trotted across the curtain like running horses.

It provided a wonderful atmosphere for light and simple eats in this suffocating season of humidity. We had tomato flower cum plum pickles and cold plain noodle for lunch. Both were refreshing and very appetizing! I love beautiful presentation of food than the food itself, to be frank. The tomato was cut in a vertical direction so that it was able to bloom. Plain noodle dipped in dashi (だし) sauce (1 dashi: 2 water) was simply tasty. It tasted clam, cold, and pleasant. It felt as if pores, eyes and ears were temporarily immue from the heat and humidity in the air. The Japanese vocabulary that I just picked up, 素直な, might describe the taste well, or perhaps 'rustic'. I admit that the description sounds rather pretentious or exaggerating, but I really liked the weightless look and taste of the food.
The noodles floated in the amber dipping sauce gleaming like necklaces of coral. My tongue almost abandoned its duty at the sight of the translucency in the presentation.

Over the last few days, I have been experimenting with several light dishes. Spinach in crashed sesame seeds, sesame oil, sugar and some soy sauce; Asian cucumber blended in miso paste, sesame oil, a pinch of sugar. They were small delights on the dinning table for sure.

Bravo Veggies! They provide soothing company in summer!

Hydrangea (あじさい, Azisai) 紫陽花

Hydrangea has been dominating the landscape of our neighborhood since a month ago. They are definitely showy and daring in posing for their beauty.
A couple of weeks ago when I visited the house of my aunt-in-law, she had a hydrangea standing on her dinning table. I was astonished at the close look at the flowers and was amazed at the vivid traces of veins on its petals and leaves. To me the net of veins manifested the vigor and power of their life.

It was pouring on that day, but, I remembered, all the hydrangeas stood stubbornly and bloomed extravagantly despite the torrential rain. It was as if they had no fear at all of braving the weight of the rain but enjoyed the down-pouring water as, perhaps, their name denoted.
My aunt-in-law must have told me that it is called 'azisai' (あじさい), but my command of Japanese language is too shallow to make it memorable.

Then in my textbook I came to know that Azisai, or hydrangea, is the flower of the rainy season in Japan, usually during May and June.

Ah! no wonder!

I then tried to take snaps of these flowers; however, perhaps the rainy season is now approaching an end, so that most of the blossom that I once saw is gone. What a pity! My knowledge about the pleasant plant came so late!

Fortunately, I did manage to catch up with some blossom, which waited until the last moment.

Sometimes there are azisai of different colors, for instance, pink, purple, baby blue, or white, on the same shrub. It is curious indeed. Roses can have different colors, but they are only found on different roots, as I remember. (Correct me if I am wrong, please.) The research on the internet told me that it is absolutely common for azisai. The degree of acidity of the soil determines the color of azisai flowers. As it is said, flowers turn blue if the soil is acid; they become white if the soil is neutral. Of course, then, it is possible to try to decide the color of the flowers in one's garden by adding fertilizers to the soil.

When I was hanging cloths last weekend, our landlady greeted me in the garden. She was trimming the plants outside our window. Then she pointed to some shrubs skirting along the house telling me that they are Azisai. I was so surprised and so much excited that I asked twice, '本当に？本当に?' (Really?Really!) I have never seen them blooming, and neither has K. The landlady said that they only bloomed once after the year when it was planted, but they have been very quiet ever since the last trimming about 3 years ago.

Upon the news, I sighed and felt the same sorry as the landlady did.

Azisai is so close! But I don't have a chance to see it...

What a romantic picture it would be to have lived in the house surrounded by these colorful ball-like flowers.

My Domestic Goddess Project:
Pork steak and Komatsuna (こまつな（小松菜）)

Ever since I started cooking Japanese food, the Chinese characters of Komatsuna, 小松菜, has intrigued me. The characters, according to Wanchen's dictionary of free translation, were literally interpreted as "the vegetable of Little Pine". Of course, it was partly because I didn't know how to pronounce it in Japanese. Yet, the pastoral image that my literal translation projected, 'the vegetable of Little Pine', had been quite satisfactory to me. I imagined that it was a kind of vegetable that was initially grown by a little boy called Little Pine. Every morning, he would jump out of the bed and hurry to his small allotment in order to see how the little veggies had been. Dews on the leafy komatsuna were shining like pearls and mirroring Little Pine's happy face.


Then I found an easy recipe to try komatsuna. (Imagine how I was excited in the supermarket when I picked up a bag of this romantic veggie!) After the steak and komatsuna were shallow fried, they were ready to serve.

I found that the way I cut the tendon of the steak
made it look like a butterfly (or moth) flying over a meadow of komatsuna 小松菜.

This recipe was found on p. 50, Pork: Garlic Steak (ポークとガーリツクステーキ), in ひとり暮らしの簡単ごはん: Let's Enjoy Cooking.

My Domestic Goddess Project:
Putting the sun in the pocket!

French Crepe, I think, for today's breakfast. It is quite substantial for a breakfast but absolutely yummy.
Well, I enjoyed making it as I felt I was doing an artwork when I tried to locate ingredients to their right positions on the canvas of the crepe.
A slice of yellow cheese as the background, a slice of pink ham as a cloud at dawn, and finally golden egg sitting at the center of the picture as the sun.

A morning full of energy! お元気で！
The recipe is here.

My Domestic Goddess Project

I have been exploring the beautiful cookbooks that I found on K's bookshelf.

Tofu in Pizza Style is a very easy-to-make appetizer!
Basically, you just pile up bacon, sliced pepper, cheese and ketchup on the top of tofu and bake it! We don't have oven in the house, but it proved that toaster also worked!
The tofu chunks taste chewy and denty!

It is called はんぺんのピザ風, on p. 78 in ひとり暮らしの簡単ごはん：Let's Enjoy Cooking. (オレンジペ−ジ)
I love the tips and recipes of small vegetable dishes that this book offers.

My Domestic Goddess Project

After I left York, my baking project has discontinued due to the lack of ovens available to me.
Life goes on, however. The project continues in the line of Asian cuisine.

The Lawson cookbook is now perching on the shelf for a rest. Instead, I am now experimenting with Japanese appetite.

I cooked ginger pork (しょうが焼き) a couple of days ago, a recipe found on p. 18 in いちばんわかりやすい基本の料理.










Ginger is definitely one of the most welcomed spices on our dinner table.

A Desk of One's Own